Just went out on our new boat. It's a wooden 7 meter long fishing boat which was built in 1966. ALL the wood on it is in great condition, since the owner took it out of the water and re painted it every year since '66!

The engine is a SABB ( not saab) marine diesel which is hand started and is a very slow revver. Also 1966.

Anyway, i can't decide what stove to use on it. I have a large shed full of them (as some may know). The easiest by far is a marine propane stove, but how can a self-respecting stove collector use one of them?

Coleman are petrol which if spilt on a wooden boat can slightly overcook your food . Classic 3 leggers are ok, but they can flare up sometimes.

Then, finally, ther's ttrangias. I suppose thyre perfect for boats, but abit cold.

Any suggestions? (pics of boat coming as soon as my bloody scaner starts to work)

Before starting on stoves just a word about your engine. Sabbs are excellent and will last forever. Not only that but whatever the state of your boat, the sound of your engine will turn heads admiringly wherever you go. It's abeautiful noise that is not often heard these days. Look after it!
Well, to stoves.
Butane/Propane installations are far and away the most popular option currently in use in small boats. It's clean, convenient & cheap. However, the installation needs to be 1st. class to minimise the risk of leaks. Umpteen people have been killed & countless boats blown up due to gas leaking from the system and collecting in the bilges, then when the unfortuante bod gets up in the morning or boards the boat after being away for a while, he thinks everything is ok, goes to brew up and ....
There is every gas stove you could want out there, from the bog standard single ring to the all-singing-all-dancing job that looks like a refugee from the kitchens of the Dorchester.
Paraffin is good - no vapour problems but marine paraffin stoves are not common these days. There is the priming etc. to do before you can get the breakfast under way although quicklighters/preheaters which make the job easier are fitted to some models (I don't care for 'em & used meths). I'm told that the favoured priming device for paraffin people is the gas blowlamp. There's also the problem of fuel transfer. This can be a fiddly business in the comfort of your workshop but in a rolling boat it is infinitely more difficult and it only takes the gentlest of movements to make you spill it. Which brings me to what I would say is paraffin's greatest drawback, ie it only takes a tiny drop of paraffin on the cabin sole to stink out the place and when the wind's freshening and the spray's rising and in the nice, warm cabin seems like a nice place to be, the smell of paraffin is just the thing to get some people's breakfasts moving in an upward direction. You can generally tell, without looking, if paraffin is in use on a boat. I had paraffin on my boat and just lived with the smell; I got used to it. There's any number of ways to modify the average Primus type stove for marine use; gimbals, pan clamps, saveall etc. Smallish 1 & 2 burner stoves (eg Optimus 155 - I have one which I kept when I sold the boat) are not produced any more as far as I know but crop up on ebay and elsewhere from time to time. The other end of the range (no pun intended), and there's not much in between, is Taylor's. Considered to be THE marine paraffin stove. Very nice too but you'll need a wheelbarrow to take the money to the chandlers. One (an 030)came up on ebay a few weeks back, I think it went for £250 and whoever got it got a bargain. Check out http://www.blakes-lavac-taylors.co.uk/prod02.htm
The third major option is, as you put it, boozeburners. I've seen quite a few of these on different boats especially Scandinavian ones. I've never used one but their owner always spoke highly of them so there must be something in it. On the face of it spills shouldn't cause too many problems, least of all smelly ones. Fuel transfer is always going to be problematic with liquid fuels in small boat galleys. Anyway ask & look about & check out: http://www.swego.com/stoves_alcohol.htm
Origo seems to be the brand of choice with boat owners.
The only other option that springs readily to mind is solid fuel although in a 7metre boat its probably limited to predominantlly heating with the capability to boil a kettle if needed.
Can't think of much else just now but if anything springs to mind I'll let you know.
PS Petrol is generally frowned upon for small boat interior use ( potential vapour problems, spills messy and dangerous, smelly too)

Yeh, this engine is really nice. It's the 10hp model. single cylender 760 (i think) CC diesel. When it's ideling you can actually hear the individual strokes clearly. The noise of the flywheel is louder than the exhaust!

The back up engine is a seagull silver centure plus, made in '74. That is also a great engine.

The starter and alternator are knackered on it, but who needs a starter when you have a hand crank? The alternator however is a usefull bit of kit, so i'll replace that.
We went out without an alternator today, so the fishfinder had to run off the battery.

As for the stove, i have an optimus 111. It seems perfect, only mine is a petrolburner, and it is kind of messy to pre-heat. Has anyone got a 111 keroburner for sale/trade? I could swap my Coleman Peak1 for a 111 kero. The coleman peak is kero converted, but still can'r beat a 111.

The cranking handle won't seem half so attractive once you've bent your thumb a couple of times and/or tried cranking when the boat is rolling, you're holding on to keep you balance with one hand, cranking with the other, then you need another hand to flick the compression lever over so the engine compresses and fires. If you are alone this third hand is what causes the problem.This will happen sometime, might doesn't come into it. Much easier & safer to turn a key or push a button.
Whatever stove you decide to use you ought to be giving serious thought to some form of, at the very least, pan rails or clamps otherwise you will have to hold your pan or kettle in place just about all the time at sea and quite often in port (The wash from a passing boat is enough to make things slide off stoves, and stoves off locker tops).This will happen too! With your mig you should be able to fabricate something quite easily. It's a good idea to ask other boat owners for information about anything. The sailing mags Yachting World & Practical Boat Owner have an online forum similar to this. Good info to be had there too.
Ian

Hi Adi,
A while ago I posted some info on alternatives to parafin. White spirit (alias Stoddard solvent across the pond I believe) and BBQ lighter fluid are parafin in a more refined form. I regularly burn these as alternatives to parafin when touring on the bicycle. I've used them mostly in the Nova but before my earlier posting on this topic I ran a litre or two of each through a 96 (a good stove type to use for such experiments because if things don't work out the stove can very easily be cleaned out - unlike 210 type burners). Both stoves remained as clean on the vaporisation surfaces as the day they were made. White spirit smells significantly less than parafin and BBQ lighter fuel is to all intents and purposes odour-free, mainly because the sulphur has been removed and then the fuel has been hydro-treated. In the uk these fuels are readily available at about £1/litre. This makes them about the same cost per calorie as unleaded. And a LOT safer on a boat!
I seem to remember that Ross intended trying these fuels in a stove but I'm not sure if he ever did.

Hope this helps you hang on to your breakfast.

Colin.

Adi A customer came to me once looking for parts for his marine stove. He also wanted a Tilley pre-heat torch. I asked if he had a Tilley light, No was the reply. What do you want the torch for? To pre-heat my stove, was his answer. The preheat bowl can slop fuel all over the place but with the torch the fuel is combined in the wick.
I have never tried this torch on a stove but it sounds to be a good idea. I think you will have one or be able to get your hands on one to try
Albert

Adi,
Sounds like a gimbal would do the trick for you. The stove would remain level as the boat rocked about on the water. I have seen them for Optimus 45 size stoves. No doubt you can scrounge one up in a junk shop.

Chuck

Well, i was thinking maybe an optimus 111 with some kind of gimball hanging over it. It won't be that effective since it'll be higher off the flame, but it should work.

I must confess, i'v partually turned over to the dark side. I have a butane mini-BBQ on board, for bbqing freshly cought mackrel (sp?). This is only because kero mini bbq's don't exist (yet!) I'm sure i'll be able to make something up from a 3 legger tank and a couple of burners.

I suppose i could just put pots and pans on the mini BBQ, but it'll cover them in fat and will waste alot of fuel. A proper stove is alot better.

I could put up some pics of the boat. I know it's nothing to do with stoves, but if anyone's interasted....

when you get the stove in the boat show us how it
all worked out..a thurm sport with a home made "fence"
around it to keep the pans from slipping off would
work nice.

As several have pointed out, the usual choices for marine liquid fuel stoves are kerosene or alcohol. Petrol is unsafe as a fuel in a boating environment. Low volatility of kero for safety has to be weighed against priming and odor of spills, as has been said, but then again these are the drawbacks of kero in camping as well. Alcohol has the advantage of lower energy and easy extinguishment of rogue flame with water. The drawback is that in daylight alcohol flame can be very hard to see.
My suggestion: diesel; to wit, a Hipolito 2 modified for diesel by Force 10 marine. I have such a stove (I've often gloated about it here), and when I called Force 10 several months ago, they said they had the burners again.
Here are the advantages: just use your engine fuel. You can also use kero in it anytime. But mainly, it will be unique: a bold addition to a fine craft.
I just checked Force 10s website, but don't see these listed. I'd suggest emailing them to find out.

I must admit, Ed, That a didn't give diesel a second thought mainly due to the odour problem, which to me is much worse than paraffin and also because until diesel burning camp stoves developed, I hadn't seen a diesel fired stove small enough for Adi's needs. Taylors, who I referred to earlier in this thread, have produced a diesel fired heater for donkeys years and also do a model with gravity feed, which in a stove application, could be advantageous in that the fuel tank for the stove would be outside the cabin (most likely on its roof)where it should eliminate the problems associated with spillage inside. Whether or not that would give it enough head would have to be looked into.
The uniformity of fuel with the prime mover is a good point although it goes the other way too - a gallon of paraffin with a pint of engine oil mixed in makes a fair substitute for diesel which may at some time or another be just the thing you need to get you home.
Finally, the singularity of a diesel galley installation in the greater small boat world combined with the sedate 'puckerty-puckerty-puckerty' (say it out loud; sounds very similar to a slow revving diesel) of his engine would give Adi an enviable PVQ (Pose Value Quotient) which is not to be disregarded at his time of life.

Ian

I emailed force 10 about their diesel burners.

Would kero mixed with engine oil really work in a diesel? I didn't know that. Thanks.

Also, i think kero with engine oil will work in the seagull, but it'll be abit difficult to start.

Maybe i should just use a No5 or simular 3 legger. I'm not really bothered about the smell of kero, and i can allways use lamp oil, which doesn't stink, if i need to. Lamp oil is about £1/leter, which isn't too bad. About thesame as kero.

Just got back from the boat by the way. The starter and alternator both work now, and i'v re-wired everything. I think we might go night fishing tonight.

This is of course the heart of the matter and I believe would serve our precocious adi well before his peers.
I still haven't used my Hipo 2 with diesel, but will sometime; I'm curious as to whether or not it puts out much in the way of effluvium. The only obvious modification to my stove is an extra-large spirit cup; there may well be differences with the jet, etc.; I don't know. But I would think that with good combustion in a pressure stove even diesel ought to burn well without odor. I guess it's time for the experiment.
There is a considerable sport salmon fishery in Washington and Oregon. If you want to get out into the ocean, as opposed to fishing in Puget Sound or the coastal bays, you generally rent a spot on a commercial boat. Then as you fish, you combine the effect of heavy swell with diesel fumes fogging the atmosphere. The hardy can find a state of controlled nausea; the less hardy feed the fishes their processed lunch.

Yeh, we have commercial fishing boats here too. Our engine doesn't produce that many fumes. Alot less than normal boat engines.

Luckely for me, i don't normally get sea-sick.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3716146333&category=4399

This looks like it could fit the bill

Rik

I saw this too. It's a very attractive stove but I can't help thinking Adi's going to need a good bit more than $28 if he fancies it. Then it's going to take another $20+ to get it home by surface.
All the same, it's the sort of thing that make me think it would be worth buying another boat to put round it(don't think I'd get that one past Wife!)

Ian

I think that that stove will be too expensive for my "budget".

I think an optimus 111 is probably the best ting i can get. It's flat, low and can easily be modefied with anti slide guards. However, i'll need to get a kero version, since my petrol one is really not suitable for indoor use. I suppose i cuold just prime it with alcohol, but wher's the fun in that?

In a gimballised setup you'd be better off with a stove in which the burner, and thus the pan support, are in-line vertically rather than side by side. The weight of a pan of fish stew or a kettle to one side of the stove would cause it not to hang level, which is the whole idea, and increase the chances if scalding hot contents slopping out. In their infinite wisdom Optimus recognised this problem and, on the 155 (& presumably, the 55 too) put a damn great ballast bar, on a notched rack for adjustment, underneath the back of the stove to counteract the extra weight of the pans on the front.
A stove such as a 111 also has limited pan capacity if the pan is not going to overhang the tank, which is something you don't want as it causes overheating of the tank.

Ian

The 'drip-pot' type Diesel marine stoves and heaters typically need at about 24" of head over the heaters float valve to work correctly.
I have a Sigmar 100 heater fitted into my caravan, works perfectly, at about 36". Sigmar makes excellent Diesel stoves too.

For fun, you might try Diesel in a 'Kero burner, Both silent and roarers. I do it alot and works fine.

I even burnt Diesel in Coleman briefcase stoves.
I dont recomend it as a regular practice.
For one, its a bugger to get primed and lit. It needs a gas torch played over the generator tubes for preheating and eventually when you get it running, many parts of the stove will get alot hotter than it normally does when burning petrol or gas.

Sven